Interface problems

This is the finished interface for my game, the game will play out on this screen, each of the reigons are colour coded and is explained fully in my GDD document, my problem that appeared during this process was the interacton the player had with the game, it needed more tha just this screen to be interesting and engaging, so i added in the use of pop up notifications and a scrolling notifications along the top grey panel, splitting them up into 3 levels of severity, green amber and red similar to the games phases, the red notifications would be acompanied by the pop up notificatons, games such as plauge inc, use this mechanic to give more visual stimulation.

Logo

After the mechanics where sorted out i could start working on the visuals that would accompany the information in the GDD, i wanted the GDD to look like a decrepit top secret style file so i made the logo look like a worn stamp that would go in the corner of every page.

Problems with End of days

One of the first problems i encountered kind of just happend, i was relaxing playing civilisation V and i realised the game i was concepting was a reskin of civ with diffrent end game outcomes, and this really didnt sit well with me, i also realised for my game that it needed a deffinate time limit of play so i did look into how civ used a turn based system and saw that it worked better than the real time i was thinkig of using, looking at it now real time would of caused way too much chaos and probably wouldnt of worked very well, so in that retrospective i am glad that i changed the game to a turn based game rather than real time, i also went back to the drawing board with allot of the mechanics to try and take the game away from being too much like Civilisation V (which is an amazing game btw).

the game was extremely vast aswell, and it encorporated way too much than what i actually needed, at this point i think for a 30 page GDD i chose the wrong game but i decided to work around it as best i could to make a playable fun game. origionally the game consisted of the following:

Game Narrative Overview

Based on findings of the MAVEN mission it has become knowledge throughout world leaders that there is now an expiration day on the planets ability to be habitable. The player plays as a country of their choice acting as the leader for that country, they must decide how they will deal with the information and take their country forward to preserve either their country in the last remaining days or work towards finding a way to preserve life on the planet.

The game is a turn based simulation game and is a single player experience.

Game Mechanics

Methods of play

Military

Some players may want to bulk up their countries military might to deter an aggressor or to wage a war themselves.

The player can choose their own military generals, secretaries of defence etc, depending on what kind of person they need to carry out their way of organising their military.

Economics

Some countries are democratic some are dictatorships and some are communist this would obviously effect the economical standpoint of the country

if the country is in the EU and uses the euro, if one of the major players such as Germany or the UK pull out the players economy could collapse, but also if the players economy collapsed on its own its worth remembering other countries would be obligated to help, even if it is begrudgingly. 

Resources

A country cannot build things without the appropriate resources; a country must collect the resources it needs from its own territories or buy in from others.

Environment

The MAVEN missions findings have brought back bad news to the earth, aimed at the inevitable extinction of the human race through the atmosphere leaking away, the player can use scientific research to maybe slow down the process

Funding could be put into things such as wind farms and hydro power to sustain the planet and maybe do something to prolong the player’s game time and the planets life span

Countries such as china have a high industrial sector this in turn raises their Co2 emissions, this means the player could accelerate the time to the end of the world, the player could also face international pressure to cut down the emissions if the findings of MAVEN become public knowledge.

Science & Research

This would need allot of funding poured into it or even mutual co-operation from other countries to be able to pull off the extreme scientific discoveries such as colonisation of the earth or terra-forming a different planet.

Engineering

Aided by Science and research new technologies will become available to the player that will aid them in whichever way it is that they are playing, new technologies could aid things such as advanced weaponry, new ways of preserving the atmosphere, ways of stopping the MAVEN missions findings from becoming a reality or even things such as terrafroming on new planets, to do that new technologies would deffinately have to be discovered.

International trading

Some things may be cheaper to purchase overseas in countries such as china (if the player is not playing as china)

Items may only be available from other countries such as American or Russian made weaponry being in good standing with them may drive prices down or even allow the player to purchase from them in confidence

Business

One way to bring more economy into the players chosen country would be to drum up more business in the country with moves such as tax breaks for certain industries to attempt to poach businesses from other countries.

International relations

and also affect their international relations, dictatorships don’t get on well with democratic countries and communist don’t get along with democratic countries.

The player can choose to try and bring other countries into the fray through mediums such as the UN to try and sustain the planet or work alone or even against the other countries

 other countries may be hostile at certain times in their history as well and may attack and try and take over the players territories, as well the player may decide the easiest way to attain resources may be to dominate the other territories.

If the country is an EU country it is under the jurisdiction and rules of the EU, it may even use the euro as its currency, because of this there would be targets the player would have to meet and rules they would have to adhere to, such as environmental ones

Public Standing

The player doesn’t play as a world leader but more as the country itself,

 As the player takes control of a different world leader as they come into power their influence and credibility will change along with it, so some things that are possible with one leader may not be possible with another,

International  relations are also altered in the same way, dictators are overthrown, new leaders are instated and new leaders come into office, each have their own agendas, feelings towards outside interference and governing bodies such as the UN

Different countries –

Players will be given game start statistics that will allow them to choose the difficulty and way they may wish to play; these however are altered as the game is played as the players decisions and input will affect the country.

Different countries have different laws and belief systems that dictate them, some countries are not as welcoming to change in their societies, some shun scientific research in favour of a more religious stand point it may be harder in certain countries to advance in certain ways

Every action –

The player will have a set of actions that they can choose to take at any point or choose not to at all, these actions will cause drastic knock on affects positive or negative depending on the circumstances in the country around that time, for example, making the findings and impending doom of the planet public knowledge it could cause mass panic and riots or it could be the kick the world needs to begin working together towards a common goal.

The player has complete control over the games direction they can choose whether they want to focus their attempts on research into ways to sustain our environment, military strength, ways to colonise other planets are just some examples.

in an ideal world this would have been the basis for quite a nice in depth game, but sadly i had to skin it down to its bare bones and build it back up, i had time contraints and also other modules that needed my attention. i skinned it down to its bare bones and thought long and hard about what i actually wanted to achive witht his game, what was i looking to create and do, it took a while but i realised what i wanted to do was create a game that promoted co-operation rather than agressive takeovers and political deceit, which with the origional game idea above was what it was fast becoming.

I rewrote the game mechanics which took a decent ammount of time and changed them to the following in which the player now plays not as one contry but as a reigon of the world and in that reigon the player now plays a group of scientists working to save mankind: 

Based on the findings of the MAVEN mission it has become knowledge throughout world leaders that there is now an expiration date on the planets ability to be habitable.

Players will take on the role of the world’s leading scientists, based in a specific region of the world. They will be attempting to save the human race by picking a solution and developing it to its conclusion, before they run out of time and before another region provides a solution.

The game is a turn based simulation game and is a single player experience.

Game Mechanics

The Countdown

Time will pass in game and progress through three distinct play conditions. As the player progresses through them, conditions on the earth will deteriorate. This will have various affects on the mechanics of “Economics”, “Resources” and “Politics” outlined below.

Phase 1: Green – World relatively OK. The results of Maven have not yet been broken to the public and resources and money flow between countries in a simulation of how they do currently.

Phase 2: Amber- World begins to deteriorate. News has broken and mild panic begins. Some regions withhold resources/money, some pool together and co-operate. Regions begin to develop their own alternative solutions for human survival.

Phase 3: Red- World nears it’s end. Player has little time left to save the human race, conditions on the Earth worsen. In some regions, society breaks down, resulting in some resources being lost to chaos. Pressure builds to find a solution. Environment worsens and this can destroy or hamper the various solutions developed by each region.

The Geography

Players pick a region of the world in which their scientific research is based. There are eight regions in total; North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Russia, The Middle East, China and Austral-Asia.

Each region has different statistical strengths for each game mechanic:- “Economics”, “Resources” and “Politics”.  

E.g:- If the player had chosen to play as North America, this would affect the ease with which the player would be able to negotiate with China in “Politics”. “Economics” would be high, but the amount they have invested into research might be very little and so their stat for “Resources” would be low.

The Economics

The scientific body will have a pre-determined amount of finances in reserve, but will use this mechanic to further their research in the hope of preserving mankind. This could be through paying for R&D to ensure technological advancements, or for ensuring the success of their project, either from a security perspective or even bribing countries for their support and financial backing.

The Resources

The Scientists cannot build things without the appropriate resources; they must use the resources they need from their own reserves or buy in from others.

By researching, new technologies will become available to the player that will aid them in whichever solution they have chosen to try.

Players may trade resources with other regions in an attempt to work in cooperation with them.

The Politics

The player can choose to try and bring other countries into the fray through mediums such as ambassadors, to try and work with other regions, or coerce with certain regions against the solutions of other regions.

 Other regions may be hostile at certain times in their history as well and may steal from the player’s region; in return, the player may also do this.

Concept

The GDD that we have to come up with must be based upon the essay we did before christmas, my essay was based upon the MAVEN nasa mission whihc is set to launch late 2013.

The mission is going to circle mars atmosphere for one year collecting data about the rate of loss of its inner atmosphere, which from research findings is one of the reasons for the loss of the planets ability to sustain life, they then want to use this data to backtrack and see if they can pin point at what time mars would of been habitable.

in my essay i explored the concept of the researchers discovering that earth has a similar fate awaiting it as mars and the reprocussions that would have on our planet as a whole in a future scenario.

before coming up with a certain game idea we came up with three loose concepts that would make up the base for the final Games design document concept.

i decided to try and make my three concepts as diffrent as possible and keep an open mind and see if i could keep one particular idea from becoming the final one before reciving feedback.

The three ideas that i concepted consisted of:

Earthly Resort

Game overview

The player plays as a Martian alien that has followed the maven probe back from its mission. The small Martian has been sent by its employer to see if earth is the right kind of place to set up a holiday resort for his people.

Genre: Open world adventure

Style: light hearted comedy toon game.

Players: Single player experience

Sequence: An open world game

Mechanics

·         World mapping – the player has a small scanning device that allows them to map out the earth collecting data about the plants animals and different environments that the player will discover

·         .Small guys make a big impact – Martians are tiny and can easily find themselves trapped lost and in danger from things in this strange new world, they player must refrain from being detected by the inhabitants of the planet in case they decide not to set up a resort here, so the player can’t go around killing things and being seen by locals.

·         .Stealthy – the player can use items in the surroundings and items that have been picked up to help them evade capture or detection.

·        . Inhabitants – at points in the game the player will have to take down and disable the locals to evade detection or being caught by the FBI, the player must then wipe the recent memories of the inhabitant so they don’t remember seeing anything

Atmosphere

A light hearted toon style game with bright colours

3D game

End of Days

.Game overview

Based on findings of the MAVEN mission it has become knowledge throughout world leaders that there is now an expiration day on the planets ability to be habitable. The player plays as a country of their choice acting as the leader for that country, they must decide how they will deal with the information and take their country forward to preserve either their country in the last remaining days or work towards finding a way to preserve life on the planet.

Genre: An RTS simulation game.

Style: Serious.

Players: Single player experience.

Sequence: The game is not linear, the player can take different routes and decisions that make the game, and it’s in game events and its outcomes unique to the player.

Mechanics

·         .A top down map of the world in which the player would have a side menu in which options can be chosen

·         The games option menu is split up into categories such as environmental, social, economic, international relations, Military, Science and research, engineering and International trading and business.

·         The player has complete control over the games direction they can choose whether they want to focus their attempts on research into ways to sustain our environment, military strength, ways to colonise other planets are just some examples.

.

·         Public standing- the player doesn’t play as a world leader but more as the country itself, as the player takes control of a different world leader as they come into power their influence and credibility will change along with it, so some things that are possible with one leader may not be possible with another, international and public relations always play a part.

·         .Other countries – the player can choose to try and bring other countries into the fray through mediums such as the UN to try and sustain the planet or work alone or even against the other countries, other countries may be hostile at certain times in their history as well and may attack and try and take over the players territories, as well the player may decide the easiest way to attain resources may be to dominate the other territories.

·         . End – the game will end if the player’s country is completely taken over by another, the country falls apart through things such as economic failure, famine or maybe a virus or something as simple as the world becomes inhabitable.

·         Every action – The player will have a set of actions that they can choose to take at any point or choose not to at all, these actions will cause drastic knock on affects positive or negative depending on the circumstances in the country around that time, for example, making the findings and impending doom of the planet public knowledge it could cause mass panic and riots or it could be the kick the world needs to begin working together towards a common goal.

M.A.V.E.N

Game Analysis

The player controls the MAVEN probe during its mission, maintaining it, setting its daily missions fixing any problems that may arise.

Genre: A casual simulation game.

Style: The games style will be a realistic shown through a mission control screen.

Players: The game is a single player experience.

Sequence: The game is linear.

Mechanics

·         Time lapse orders – player revisits the game at their leisure and gives the MAVEN probe orders and jobs to do while it is orbiting mars, different orders can only be carried out at certain times of the day and along at the order is given it will be carried out.

·         Technical difficulties – at certain times the game will bring up notifications to the player of technical difficulties with the probe, such as a dust clog stopping instruments working correctly,  debris knocking into the probe or just losing its coordinate data and roaming aimlessly.

·         Live images – every now and again the probe will send live images of where it is to the player, the player can share these images or keep them saved in a data file.

·         Changes – the player can alter and change the paths and order in which the probe will do its duties.

·         Relax – the player doesn’t religiously play this game its meant to be a quick pick up and play game while relaxing, similar to a tamagochi.

·         Results – as different information is collected and the player passes it on to the correct people results and findings will become public knowledge.

·         Leader board – the player will be able to share their achievements at the end of the mission on a leader board and be able to see what other people found out at the end of their missions and statistics showing what they prioritised, their level of maintenance and how efficient they were.

 
After getting feedback i looked over the three designs and with the need to fill a 30 page GDD document i decided to go for the real time strategy game and expand more on the mechanics.